


People are Puppets Held Together with String

by Zappy



Series: Crimson Spade [13]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 18:15:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15394563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zappy/pseuds/Zappy
Summary: Strings are pulled and a few fray before the final bell of the New Year.





	People are Puppets Held Together with String

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during the season 1 finale of Young Justice, which in Crimson Spade years, is year 6 and the Justice League formed in Year 4. This one switches POV between Hood and Robin, as there were aspects of the story that only the other could show.

Hood was starting to think that normal-feeling days were the worst imaginable. After all, perfectly wretched things kept happening on otherwise normal-feeling days. He’d been in the Batcave, passing on yet another meeting up in the Watchtower even if it was an induction party. Sure, most of the League were very nice people, but that didn’t change the fact that Hood didn’t much like such large crowds. They made him antsy and his Voice a bit too loud. So instead he’d opted to keep watch in Gotham, and Batsy never argued too much when Hood was claiming that Gotham should have  _ somebody  _ around to stop crime. 

The reality of the situation was that it was quiet in Gotham for a New Year’s Eve, and Hood was dancing around the Batcave with the music on full blast. He’s pretty sure Alfred could hear it, but no one could hear his awful singing and that was the goal.

“YOU CAN DANCE! YOU CAN JIVE- HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIIIIIFE! SEE THAT GIRL, WATCH THAT SCENE- DIGGIN' THE DANCING QUEEEEEEEEEEN!”

If it weren’t for the fact that he’d set up the computer to flash to get his attention should  _ something  _ come up, Hood would’ve danced the entire night away completely unaware. Turning the music down, Hood opened up the message coming from Robin. “Hey there little bird, thought you’d be having your own Team party with your new recruit-”

“Hood! Have you been to the Watchtower?”

Hood paused. Something was off with the kid’s voice, like he was panicking. It took a lot to get him to lose his cool, learned that trick from Batsy. “You know I’m not one for crowds, little bird. Took a pass to stay in Gotham, why?”

“Something  _ seriously bad  _ is going on, how fast can you get to these coordinates?”

“Faster than you can say Snickerdoodle.”

~~

“What in the- Why is Blackbird tied up like a thanksgiving turkey!?” Robin looked over at the door when he heard that familiar voice cry out. It was a relief seeing that red helmet, but they couldn’t take any time to relax.

“Hood! You didn’t tell anyone you were coming did you?” He heard his mentor sigh at his question and put his hands on his hips.

“You told me not to. Which,  _ suspicious _ . Are you doing something that’ll make Bats ground you?”

“I’m more worried about him trying to kill us.” And really, Bruce was the worst threat of the League. Almost all of the others had powers or impressive skill sets, but he knew that Bruce had a plan to take down each and every one of them. He was paranoid like that.

Hood let out a bark of laughter, “C’mon, little bird. How bad can it be?”

Kaldur took a step forward, “The entire League has been taken over by Vandal Savage using extremely advanced biotechnology. No one escaped, besides us.”

There was silence from Hood as Robin assumed he was assessing the situation. Then the man straightened his poster in a way that told Robin that he was becoming serious, even his usual chipper voice was devoid of amusement. “Well, damn.” With only nine teenagers, one adult and one robot verses the entire league being controlled by an evil Immortal? Damn was a nice way of summing it all up.

“We’ve already covertly contacted help from Atlantis, we’re just waiting for the arrival of Doctor Roquette and then we can begin.” Kaldur gestured to the room adjacent to the one they were in, where they had Queen Mera along with an older fellow that Robin was told was one of Atlantis’ top scientists and head of the starfish project. “The device used to control the League is a mixture of nanotech, magic, and part of the giant starfish that we’d found frozen.”

Robin picked up where Kaldur left off barely even a second after he’d finished, “Queen Mera is providing the magical expertise,”

“Doctor Vulko is providing his knowledge on the starfish-” Wally continued.

“-and Doctor Roquette will provide the nanotech.” Finished Superboy. Hood stared at them and Robin knew he was suppressing a shiver. He never liked it when Robin mentioned the mental link the Team shared during missions, or even for fun. Hood had a deep aversion to telepaths of all sorts that he never quiet explained.

“You’re going to need someone with knowledge in chemistry.” Hood pointed out, and Robin sent him a grin that Kid Flash mirrored. This was perfect, now they could  _ really  _ get started.

“Why do you think I called you?”

~~

Working with people he barely knew or were outright strangers was hard enough. Working with the time constraint and pressure of literally the world he should probably have been used to. He wasn’t. To add on to this already steaming pile of stress he’d been having a horrible week with the Voice, lack of sleep,  _ and _ Bats was not only  _ in  _ trouble but  _ was  _ the trouble. Along with all of his friends. Hood didn’t like it when he and Bats were on opposing sides. It left a bad-rotten- _ acidic _ taste in his mouth.

He hadn’t felt so tense and joyless since the White Martian invasion three years earlier.  _ That  _ was a nightmare he didn’t mind having if this was the alternative. As the situation had sunk into him, he could feel his ears ringing. Then he started having vision trouble and more than once had to shake his head to keep focused on making Cure-tech. The Team were coming up with a battle plan, which Hood provided input for on the rare moment he needed a second to get a cup of coffee.

Coffee was addictive, and he rather hated the taste, even smothered by cream and sugar and flavoured syrup-things, but it was half of what was keeping him going at this point. Robin asked once if he was alright at about hour five, and he’s pretty sure the kiddo didn’t buy his insomnia excuse and worry for the League. 

At hour eight the walls started smiling and Hood knew he’d be having trouble getting any sleep the next  _ week _ . Thankfully, none of the other adults knew him well enough to notice that his jokes were skewed a little darker than normal, or that his voice wasn’t quite. Quite. He wasn’t the only one having a  _ say  _ at the moment.

When Cure-tech was done and they’d tested it on Black Canary, it knocked her right out. The other scientists left, Queen Mera to go defend Atlantis should Savage aim the League her way. Doctor Roquette just wanted to get outta dodge. Civilians always did. Hood tried very hard not to sigh, because that left him as the only adult supervision. Den Mother-ing was all fine and dandy, but he otherwise hated being the only adult around. He was never sure he was adult-ing right.

~~

“You’re not going up there without me.” Hood’s voice was firm, for once, and he stood his ground as the Team attempted to get ready to leave the moment Canary woke. The Team all looked at their only leaguer for the moment in surprise.

“We’re going to need your help if we have a  _ chance  _ to take on the League, so we weren’t planning on leaving you behind, Hood.” Robin replied slowly, getting an odd vibe from his mentor.  _ Hood’s acting a bit...odd, guys. I think it’s the telepathy thing. _ Robin told the others, M’gann shot him a concerned look and replied before Hood spoke again,  _ He doesn’t like telepathy? _

_ Let’s just say, that if the general population is private about their thoughts, Hood is a straight up recluse about his. _

“Good. Because I mighta passed on the party before, but there’s no way I’m missing this one. I’m almost insulted that I didn’t warrant an invitation in the  _ first  _ place.” 

M’gann hesitated before stepping forward and Robin knew she was trying to be delicate, “For all of our missions we’ve got a psychic link, if we’re going to be infiltrating the tower, facing Superman-”

“No!” Hood said, a bit too harshly, before she’d even finished speaking, and M’Gann took a sharp step back, looking...nervous? But that was- Hood wasn’t that intimidating. Ok, he was a bit...off...at the moment, but they were all on edge, and M’Gann didn’t look at the rest of them the way she was looking at Hood now. And then, with what seemed to be a lot of effort, Hood relaxed, and his voice was steadier the next time he spoke.  “Nothing ‘gainst you, Sunshine. My mind’s can be a...a pretty scary place, sometimes.” He laughed at that, although it wasn’t particularly funny, an awful sort of wheezing giggle that sounded somehow profoundly  _ wrong _ .

_ He’s not acting like the guy who told me all about winter traditions, Robin... _

KF shot him a look,  _ We sure  _ **_he_ ** _ doesn’t need Cure-tech? _

_ Since he just spent the past ten hours working on it, it wouldn’t matter right now anyway. We can’t do anything, we’re just going to have to trust him.  _ Robin frowned but there really was nothing to do for it, they didn’t have the time to spare.  
  


The ride to the nearest Zoom tube was mostly quiet, with Hood humming  _ Hall of the Mountain King _ under his breath. It was raking the tension up to eleven, and everyone could feel how much Hood didn’t care...in fact, he seemed almost amused. He kept snickering to himself, breaking up the flow of the song, and the sound made Robin’s skin crawl. When Hood reached a third of a way into the song, Robin saw him start playing an invisible piano to accompany his humming, which was very Hood-esque, he’d once commented that he played piano to calm himself down. Robin hoped that meant that he was trying to control himself. Then Rocket shot Zatanna and Artemis a look out of the corner of her eye and Hood added a bit of flourish, presumably for their benefit. After that, Robin didn’t turn his eyes away from Hood, though he did manage not to project any of his thoughts on the matter.

~~

Once Red Arrow, Tornado, and Black Canary were in the main entryway, he and the Team managed to get in undetected, but he figured that wouldn’t last long. Since he didn’t want to mess up the groove of the Team  _ too  _ badly, he allowed Kaldur to call the shots and he had to admit. Taking down members of the League was exciting.  _ Fun _ , even! He couldn’t resist letting out a laugh or three, after he placed the Cure-tech on Karter. The guy had an empty barrel of laughs so far as he was concerned.

Following Robin and Superboy was a different sort of fun, though he knew the super-kid had even  _ less  _ of a sense of humor than the adult model did. 

_ Puppets are only as good as the puppeteer, kids! What’s the phrase- no strings on me? Hehhehehe. _ He chuckled, and set loose a handful of his spades at Hawkgirl, aiming for her hands and wings while Robin dodged her swings. It slowed her down enough that Superboy’s Wolf managed to pounce on her long enough to put a Cure-tech on her.

Let’s see, the winged-duo, check, rubber-band, check, tiny-tim, check, caps marvel and atom, check and check, Fate and Icon check-er-roo, scarlet, robin hood, and trident had just been done, the Krypto-peeps were on a showdown and the mars family were duking it out, who did that-

Oops! How could he forget  _ Diana _ ? Well, looked like the double R’s had her in a bubble and GL down, might as well find the  _ real  _ prize here- and think of the handsome devil. “ _ Batsy _ ! You know how to make an entrance!”

Robin joined him as Rocket continued to keep Diana contained and Batman cracked his knuckles. He was positively quivering in excitement, “Oh this is gonna be  _ fuuuuun _ .”

“Fun?” Robin repeated, incredulous. “Uh- Hood? You...you ok? You’re not…”

“Nonsense! I’m the  _ picture  _ of health!” He grinned reassuringly, as wide as he could, but Robin did not seem at all reassured. Oh, the helmet was in the way. Ah, well, you couldn’t win ‘em all, right? And they’d had enough build-up as was. Time to get to the punchline-

_ Ooh, pun! _

His awareness of the little bird left him as he focused on the gloriously intimidating figure in black barreling towards him. Using the arm that had been aiming a punch to his face to lift himself over caused him to let loose a few delighted giggles. This was a dance of the best sort! But ah- oops, he misstepped there, and now- Yes! That was more like it. The Bat unleashed. No holding back. No pesky little moral qualms. No mercy. It was divine, feeling the full force of the blows, made his step lighter, his smile wider.

Though as stimulating as exchanging blows with Batman was normally, this wasn’t really his Bats in control and that just sucked the  _ fun _ right out of it. His smile dropped. Sure, he wasn’t holding anything back, was playing  _ dirty  _ even which Bats never did during sparring sessions, but he could tell that his  _ beautiful  _ Dark Knight was just the puppet at someone’s invisible strings. And that meant...Batman  _ still  _ wasn’t paying attention to him. Not  _ really _ . It made his  _ blood boil  _ and want to snap some things.

His own attacks became a little harsher, the dance was over. Now this was just insulting and someone was going to  _ bleed  _ for this. Then the stupid Supes got in the way, and Robin went to go help take him down and he got the chance to pin Batman to the ground and put the Cure-tech on him. His hands pause. This wasn’t  _ his  _ Bat, but this was a  _ fully realized _ Bat. A Bat without the chains that he saw were holding him down, holding him back from what he was always meant to be. Should he take that away, put the collar of compliance to society back on?

“Hood, what are you waiting for?” the little bird yelled, as though from very far away. His arm finally moved without thinking and put the Cure-tech into Bats’ neck. He tsked with a growl and sat back from where he was perched on Bats’ back, staring at the offending arm. Well. That was irritating.

_ Maybe the ones responsible for this are still here _ . They deserved to hear just what a joke this all was, and not even the funny kind. He turned to the little bird as he and the krypto-kid approached him. “Where’s this- Light Gang, or whatever. I wanna tell ‘em something.”

“Gone, the others say they used magic to escape once the last of the League were taken offline.”

He snarled, barely seeing them. “Well, isn’t that just  _ dandy _ . Where’s the witch-boy hang out usually? He’s some kinda demon, right? You can summon those. Let’s drag the little weasel back here and see what we can get out of him. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Or is there? I guess I’ll find out!” he laughed, high and delighted. Yes, that would do it. The cat, and then Klarion himself, and then the rest of them. And then...then, he could  _ really  _ go to town. 

His cackling was echoing along the silence of the Watchtower, with only the kids there to hear it- the kids. Right,  _ Little Bird _ and the Team of his- and- his laughter stopped.

Dick was staring at him now as if he had never seen Hood before in his life. He looked- looked  _ scared _ . He had a birdarang in one hand, but it was shaking too hard to throw with any sort of accuracy, and, all at once, Hood was ashamed. Shoulders felt like a mountain were sitting on them, he slid off of Bats’- oh Batsy- prone form. He felt a little light-headed and possibly like he’d be sick in his helmet again.

Tried deep breathing, calm down, calm the  _ hell down Hood _ . “Robin...I…” Dick dropped the birdarang and dashed over to him, but stopped short. He looked uncertain. Hood hated that  _ he’d  _ put that look there.

“...what the hell was that?” Superboy spoke up, sounding just as angry as he always did when something didn’t make sense to him. Hood supposed that made sense - lifetime of being spoon-fed the knowledge the Light wanted him to have, and now he was out of the pod and he had to learn things the hard way, just like everyone else. Must be exhausting. Speaking of.

“That was a nightmare playing out for everyone to see- my head ain’t great. I think I’m gonna...join Bats in coma-town.” He made a ‘gimme’ motion with one hand. “So, uh, CURE-tech, please?”

Robin was lightning quick slapping one to Hood’s arm, and he felt a touch of guilt for lying. But he couldn’t tell the truth. Not about this. Not about what he was. He’d have to eventually, but for now- Let him just have a bit longer. He was still only a kid.

The next moment was just darkness, and it was the best sleep he’d had in years.


End file.
